Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Nio confirmed on Friday that it will begin customer deliveries and test drives of its ET9 executive sedan in March, reiterating its timeline amid a new statement from its legal department addressing misinformation.
“In March, the Nio ET9 intelligent electric executive flagship will be available for test drives and user deliveries,” the company said in a statement, before mentioning key hardware and software innovations.
“The ET9 leads globally with technological advancements, including an all-active suspension, steer-by-wire system, next-generation digital cockpit, and top-tier audio system, delivering an unprecedented executive flagship experience,” Nio’s Legal Department said in the statement.
Nio will launch deliveries of the ET9 in China next month. The company concluded winter testing of the sedan earlier this year, with principal chief engineer Danilo Teobaldi confirming in January that the model had completed the winter tests.
The four-seater ET9 starts at 660,000 yuan ($90,600) in China under Nio’s Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) program, which allows buyers to lease the battery separately rather than purchasing it with the vehicle.
Nio CEO William Li said late last year that selling 1,000 units of the ET9 per month would “make us very happy.” A few days later, Deutsche Bank commented on the model saying it expects 1,500 units per month.
After selling all 999 units of the ‘First Edition’ (priced at 818,000 yuan, or $112,300) in just 12 hours, Nio announced on December 26 a new Signature edition priced at 808,000 yuan ($110,900).
“We appreciate the ET9 sedan’s elegant design and advanced technologies, and estimate it will sell approximately 1,500 units per month,” the firm’s analyst Wang Bin said in December.
The EV maker claims that the ET9 adopts “the world’s first integrated hydraulic fully active suspension, which for the first time highly integrates the shock absorber with the active suspension electric drive unit.”
Amid the launch, Nio said in December that the active suspension allows the model to “adapt to an ultra-large range of transient adjustment capabilities for stiffness, damping, and height, representing the current industry state-of-the-art in suspension technologies, creating a comfortable driving experience for users akin to a passenger aircraft cruising in the stratosphere.”
